The second appearance GoodGym Ealing made at Featherstone High School Learnscape was all about woodchipping a path running through the length of the garden, connecting its two gates. Volunteers Alex, Gurpal, Andrew and Ki were very eager to get the task going as five heavy bags of woodchip were awaiting to be spread. The only missing part was more hands!

Luckily, GoodGym came with a strong team again:

• Jags, who regularly engages in Southall's community work, within or outside GoodGym
• Sevan, Steph and Kash returning to Featherstone School after the fierce log moving last month
• Rainu and Roberta coming back for more GoodGymming after joining the team recently

We had three wheelbarrows for ten people to complete the woodchipping task. How many did we use? None! Dragging and tipping bags proved to be more effective, both as a full-body workout and as a way of distributing woodchip. But that's not all! Between moving bags and spreading the chips, we had to lay a membrane on the entire length of the path and pin it to hard, dry soil. We had one mallet for the pins, so we had to get creative!

Having 90 minutes for the task, we knew we had to get focussed. Did we? Driven by our desire for a challenge, we allowed ourselves to get distracted by a side mini landscaping project. We fulfilled Alex's and Jags' vision of an outdoor classroom, having a mound of soil, spare woodchip, heavy logs and donated rubber mats as materials. See the outcome in the photos!

Although we have not started woodchipping until about 20 minutes before the end of the task - believe it or not - we've made it: the new path was laid!

"Thank you so much for all your time, advice and work - I can't believe how much we achieved in the time!" - Alex, the task owner.

With another satisfying session under the belt that Sunday, we split: running, walking or cycling, back home or for yet another task in the day.

About a year ago, the kids from Featherstone High School approached Alex, today's task owner, asking about an overgrown space hidden behind the school's football pitches. Was that a garden? Could it become a garden? That's how the idea of the Garden Learnscape started. The students' initiative needed some support from the grown-ups. Gurpal from Southall Transition, who was involved in the project, introduced Alex to GoodGym. Fast forward a few weeks - and here they were!

Steph, Sevan and Kash ran to the school in Southall from their previous task in Pear Tree Park, with a break for lunch on the way. How surprised they were to see Jules, who had joined them at the previous session, turning up at the destination! Jules ran-walked all the way to the Featherstone School to make another spontaneous appearance. Her hands would definitely make the work lighter! Michelle, who walked to the task, completed the GoodGym crew. There were three more volunteers, including Alex and Gurpal and Hishaam from Southall Transition. Teamwork was the greatest strength needed at the first GoodGym session at Featherstone.

Probably the most spectacular achievement of the afternoon was moving the logs from a local park through a secret gate to the garden to create a sitting area. The timber pieces were enormous and we were not sure how to even approach them! The answer was: problem-solving and cooperation. Without those ingredients, the strongest of us wouldn't have dreamt of transporting that garden furniture!

Although everyone was up for the log challenge, there were plenty of other jobs we undertook when not getting physical with the timber: Jules reassumed her pruning trade, which she had proven to be an ace in, Michelle, Alex and Hishaam were weeding and turning the soil in beds, Sevan busied himself with plenty of various odd jobs, including carrying water, and Steph, Kash and Gurpal were working on flattening a giant mound of soil.

The team made fantastic progress on the development of the Garden Learnscape. We are looking forward to the next session in May to spread woodchip on the path and do more weeding. Sign up to join us!